MUSEUM OF COMPAEATIVE ZOOLOGY. 5 



To Professor Hyatt and to Mr. William Brewster the Museum 

 is indebted for the care of their respective departments. Dr. R. T. 

 Jackson has made excellent progress in the selection of the Fossils 

 intended for the Palaeozoic Exhibition Room. 



Dr. Eastman has continued in charge of the Vertebrate Palseon- 

 tological Collection, which is now in excellent order ; he has 

 devoted his time principally to the study and increase of the 

 collection of Fossil Fishes, and has made several excursions to 

 interesting localities on behalf of our collection. 



Dr. Mayer has spent the greater part of the last six months in 

 collecting material for the new edition of the North American 

 Acalephs. More than thirty new species of Jellyfishes were col- 

 lected at the Tortugas. In the early spring he spent some time 

 at Newport and at Nahant to obtain those species which disappear 

 with the early summer. He also visited the coast of Maine to 

 collect the more northern forms. It will require at least two 

 years to collect the more common species along our Atlantic coast, 

 and an off-shore expedition from the Tortugas to Eastport will 

 be needed, in addition to extended visits at other points of the 

 Atlantic coast, before we can expect to bring together a fair rep- 

 resentation of the Acalephan Fauna of our Atlantic coast. Dr. 

 Mayer has also revised the labels of the alcoholic collection of 

 Deep-Sea Corals, many of which had become faded. 



Dr. Woodworth, who has been engaged in the revision of our 

 collection of Worms, has undertaken to work up the Annelids of 

 the Atlantic coast of the United States. The Museum is in pos- 

 session of a large collection of colored drawings of species made 

 by Professor Agassiz and his assistants, extending from the coast 

 of Massachusetts to Florida. Of many of the species no specimens 

 are extant, and it is hoped that some use may now be made of 

 this valuable systematic material, which has been awaiting pub- 

 lication for so many years. During the past summer Dr. Wood- 

 . worth has spent his time at the Newport Laboratory collecting 

 the species of Narragansett Bay. 



Collections have been sent in exchange to Professor Orton and 

 to the Smithsonian Institution. 



Specimens have been sent for examination to Mr. P. F. Kendall, 

 to Mr. Gamble, to Dr. Thiele, and to Dr. Montgomery, who has 

 prepared a report on the Gordiacea of the Museum Collection, to- 

 gether with the results of his preliminary examination on other 



